By Min Ni Kyaw - Mar 22, 2025

Dear Myanmar Labour News,

We are reaching out to ask for your help.

We are Myanmar garment workers from Muse, currently working in Ruili, China, at Huiyin Garment Factory. We’re employed as sewing workers and the factory has only been open for a little over seven months.

We were brought here from Myanmar under a debt-based recruitment system, with our travel expenses covered on credit. Now that we are already working here, the employer transfers workers he doesn’t like to other factories if they still owe money. And the factory dismisses them and sends them back to Myanmar once the debt is paid off.

Some workers who are transferred to other factories to pay off their debts are then made to do cleaning work even after settling their debt.

The factory does not assign dedicated cleaning staff. We workers have to do all the cleaning ourselves. Also, wages here are lower compared to other factories.

We’re not allowed to leave the factory premises. The two supervisors here yell at and verbally abuse workers who can’t meet the production target.

They’re forcing unreasonable production quotas on us—beyond what’s achievable. There are over 20 workers per sewing line, but we’re still expected to collectively produce 2,000 pieces per hour per line. We’re made to work overtime during lunch and at night without pay if we can’t meet the quota.

And it’s not just lunch and night overtime—we’re also made to work on Sundays without any additional pay, sewing for free.

We’re just trying to inform you of the hardships we’re facing. We don’t know where or how to report this here, so we’re asking for your support.

There are more than 250 Myanmar workers at Huiyin Garment Factory. The factory is owned by Chinese national, and it manufactures COTONOU, AUGST SKY, and LULUS brands garments.

Myanmar Workers at Huiyin Garment Factory